1. The U.S. Government (USG) Special 301 Committee has concluded its
deliberations regarding Brazil's status on the Special 301 list
following the Out-of-Cycle Review (OCR). The Office of the U.S.
Trade Representative (USTR) notified the Brazilian Embassy in
Washington on February 15 that Brazil has been maintained on the
Special 301 Watch List (WL). Post has also notified Brazil's Ministry
of External Relations on February 15. This cable provides some
background in the event that Post has further discussions with the
Government of Brazil (GOB) on the OCR.

BACKGROUND
2. Each Spring USTR issues the Special 301 Report to identify
countries that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual
property rights (IPR) or deny fair and equitable market access to
U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property (IP) protection. The
USG Special 301 Committee conducted an OCR for Brazil before the
start of the regular 2008 annual review.

3. The Spring 2007 decision to conduct an OCR for Brazil was intended
to give Brazil additional time to make progress on IPR enforcement
and patent and trademark processing and to clarify ambiguities with
regard to its data protection regime. The Special 301 Committee
developed a number of elements to be pursued in the OCR, which were
initially presented as an action plan to the GOB in August 2007. The
action plan also constituted the basis for day-long discussions with
Brazilian officials held on January 15, 2008.

ISSUES TO DISCUSS
4. Special 301 results for Brazil: If needed, we request that
Embassy Brasilia raise the following in its discussion with host
government officials.

-- The USG has completed its IPR OCR and will be maintaining Brazil's
WL position as we move into the normal 2008 review process. The USG
does not intend to make a public announcement since Brazil's status
is not changing. The USG does not object if the GOB wishes to do
something publicly.

-- The USG very much appreciates the seriousness with which Brazil
approached our January 15 meeting, and the excellent presentations
made by many ministries and agencies of your government.

-- The USG continues to be impressed with Brazil's efforts with
regard to IPR enforcement. While we maintain ongoing concerns in
some areas of IP policy, including patent processing and protection
of data, we are prepared to continue working together on these
through constructive dialogue.

-- IP remains an important part of our overall trade relationship.
We look forward to continuing a productive discussion of these issues
at the upcoming Brazil Consultative Mechanism (BCM) meeting.
RICE

With a bit of luck the planet won’t be devastated by nuclear war in the next few days. US President Donald Trump will have begun to fixate on some other way to gratify his self-esteem – maybe by invading Venezuela or starting a war with Iran. More>>

ACLU: Step by step, point by point, the court laid out what has been clear from the start: The president promised to ban Muslims from the United States, and his executive orders are an attempt to do just that. More>>